


Flaw

by ChrissiHR



Series: the Tattoo 'verse [2]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Because Rhodey kinda went there, Friendship hurts, Gen, Ouch, So overrated sometimes, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony just has a lot of feelings, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, Wordcount: 100-2.000, Wordcount: Over 1.000, it's a good thing he has plenty of scotch too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 12:24:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8056210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChrissiHR/pseuds/ChrissiHR
Summary: I’m mc lovin It asked of the fandom (on Pinterest): “I want to know what happened to [Tony] after Steve and Bucky left. How did he manage to get up? Did he lay there for a long time, staring into space?”





	Flaw

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Guys. I don't hate Tony. I think he's human and humans are occasionally terrible at humanning. Steve Rogers is similarly human and flawed. Humans suck sometimes. All they (we) can do is try to be better. As Abraham Lincoln once famously said, "Be excellent to each other (...and party on, dudes)."
> 
> *images used in this one-shot were culled from the interwebz, with thanks to their respective creators for providing the inspiration for this painful little endeavor
> 
> #(*^&$!!! (-_-) The images aren't showing up. Here, go look at them on my sad-ass word press: https://morewritingmatters.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/flaw-inspirational-images-for-ao3/

Static crackled and Tony blinked, dragging eyelids like sandpaper over crusty eyes. Something pale passed by the light filtering between the concrete stanchions. A tall figure, silhouetted by brilliant white light.

“I found him! Vision! The southwest side. There’s an egress--”

“Yes, I see it. What is his condition?”

Pressure against his throat, silky skin, the scent of sweet orange and vanilla.

_ Pepper. _

He tried to swallow, but it caught in his throat. An aborted cough squeezed his chest and caused a full body spasm. Tony’s world washed red with pain.

“Oh my god… Tony… Can you hear me? Vision, the reactor’s been destroyed. I think he’s been stuck in the suit all this time. He’s not responding! Vision!” Pepper’s voice rose to a near-shout, but he barely heard her over the sluggish thump of his heart and the blinding migraine at his temples. His lip split again at the scab, but no blood welled up as it had the other times.

“Pep.” The sound came out closer to a breath than a whisper. Light and sound wavered and greyed.

“He’s severely dehydrated.” Tony knew that voice. Jarv-- “Friday indicates this is the same approximate position he lay in when she reported the suit offline.” Vision, not Jarvis. A sharp stick made Tony wince, then… 

…he lost the thread for a while.

When he came to again, his eyes slid open without the dry, dragging pain. His lips felt slick and tasted like fruity candy.

Cherry-vanilla.

Cherry-vanilla chapstick kisses.

“Pepper,” the word came unbidden, a whispered prayer to the ether, rife with gratitude.

“Tony…” The hand she lay on his brow was cool, her scent close and sweet.

“M’sorry, Pep.” He tried to clear his throat. Frustrated, he coughed and sputtered, whispered, anything and everything to tell her. He had to tell her-- “M’sorry. For all of it. So sorry. Nothing’s more ‘mportant-- more ‘mportant than you. Come--” That angelic face he loved filled his vision and it was all he could do not to sob. He made a feeble grab for her hand and sighed when she climbed into bed and curled up along his side with her head on his chest. Delicate fingertips traced the space where the reactor once resided, now nothing but ropey scars. “You’re everything, Pep. Shoulda told you. Every day. Every damn day. M’done. Can’t fix it all. Know that now. Can’t… can’t--”

“Shh…” Fingertips ghosted over his lips. “You’re delirious. You were stuck in the suit without power or water or food for just a little over three days. You’re not in your right min--”

“And yet, ‘ve never had this kind of clarity before.” He pressed his lips to the crown of her head. “Don’t want to lose this. Just this.” Tightening his arms around his Pepper, he whispered, “I love you, Virginia Potts. Let’s get a dog.” He withdrew to glance down at her hair, sleep-drunk, but serious. “People do that, right?”

Laughter peeled like church bells, shiny and bright, before her lips pressed against his ribs and she gave him a gentle squeeze. “Yes, people do that. We’ll talk about it when the painkillers wear off.”

“How’d…” The darkness was closing in again. He struggled to hold the thread. “How’d you find me? Out there? The GPS was malfunctioning. Friday shouldn’t have--”

He thought he imagined it when she murmured into the encroaching fog, “A friend of yours sent a raven. Just in time, too.”  
  


* * *

 

“We found that at the base in Siberia.” The sound of something heavy dropped onto his work table. Rhodey tried again, “We found this, too. Well, Pepper and Vision did. I got benched for a while. Not that sharing a hospital room with you isn’t fun, but I’m grateful to be back on my feet again.” He tapped the new leg brace with his cane. “Tony?”

“I shouldn’t have it in here,” Tony murmured, running a scarred hand over his face. “I obsess, you know? And Pep will worry.”

“Tell me what you’re thinking, Tony. I can’t see inside your head. What do you need?”

Callouses brushed the half dozen marks no one had ever buffed out of the shield. “Peggy Carter shot him once. Did you know that?” He dug the tip of one finger into the tiny ding in the vibranium surrounded by a scorch mark no one ever considered removing. “These marks… She unloaded the full clip, or whatever, of her sidearm into his shield for being kissed by another girl because he just didn’t know how to fend them off on his own. And even when he could have, Rogers never buffed out these marks. Never let me paint over them. Her fury in that moment was the most emotion, the most love she’d ever shown him. They never got that date. Never shared much more than a warm embrace, as far as anybody knows, but he saved these bullet marks.”

“What’s going on, Tony?”

“My father made this shield to protect Rogers. Aunt Peg literally stamped it with her love. But he left it. Dropped it in a Hydra base in Siberia and walked away with his murderous best friend.”

“Okay…”

“I wonder what it must be like.”

“What …  _ what _ must be like?”

“To be loved like Barnes. Beyond reason. Beyond logic. Beyond common sense. For all the monstrous shit he’s done--”

“He was brainwashed, Tony. Like Barton before the Battle of New York, he had no choice. Hydra jacked his freewill and made him their meatpuppet--”

“But he didn’t kill Fury--twice. Twice more, he somehow shot Natasha without killing her. He kicked Sam off a helicarrier after tearing off one of his wings and beat Steve until he fell out of the sky. He tried to shoot me in the face.”

“But we know he never wanted to do those things. We saw the files, the reports made by the Hydra handlers about the way he fought being wiped. He never would have hurt people who were important to Steve. That’s not him. That’s just bad programming. Like Ultron.”

Tony flinched. Sucking in a sharp breath, he sipped his scotch and let the warmth fill his chest, pushing the cold down deep.

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up on [tumblr](http://chrissihr.tumblr.com/), if you like advance notice or sneak peeks at upcoming fics and updates. Prompts welcome (Darcy pairings/trios with Bucky, Steve, Clint, Tony, Natasha--possibly others, too, just ask).


End file.
